Pool: Wizard aiming to show NZ his magic

Efren Reyes is rated by many as the best pool player ever.

Muscle memory may be letting him down, but recall of another sort bothers the legendary pool wizard Efren Reyes most. He has good reason to miss the old days.

Reyes, rated by many as the best pool player ever, arrived in Auckland yesterday and will play against Kiwis Kevin Zhang and Matt Edwards this weekend. The 59-year-old Filipino, known as "The Magician", is the man who worked out all the angles and then some, becoming pool's finest strategist. But that was before the shorter jump cues were allowed.

"I'm actually disadvantaged," Reyes told the Herald by phone during the week, in a halting conversation through an interpreter.

"My game involved hiding the ball and good strategies. That doesn't matter any more since they allowed jump cues in tournaments. It is a very big factor in terms of skill.

"It is so easy to play the jump shot. They don't have to figure out all the angles any more. I would prefer a change back but there is not much I can do about it."

Photographs reveal Reyes looks a little like the old movie tough guy Charles Bronson - wispy, abbreviated handlebar moustache and all - and he was pool's sharpest gunslinger.

Reyes was born into a large, poverty-stricken family, and at age five was sent to live with a pool hall-owning uncle in Manila. The kid became obsessed with the game, and was a prodigy. The dreaming and scheming, the desperation his impoverished background engendered, not only made him a world champion, but the player of impossible shots others couldn't even envisage.

It also created pool's finest hustler - he initially used an alias in America so opponents weren't scared off. In a 2005 profile by American sports writer Pat Jordan, nine-ball superstar Earl Strickland said of Reyes: "He's the best I've seen." He is often described as a genius.

Reyes' fame gathered momentum in the mid-1990s. A marathon duel with Strickland caught the wider imagination, an event in Hong Kong called the Colour of Money. Reyes nailed the final four games to win 120 - 117 netting him one of the sport's largest prizes of US$100,000.

The world pool star is a household name in his homeland - profiles describe him as a "living legend" and "national celebrity" - and his image adorns the Manila airport.

Reyes says excursions Down Under will let him discover players he doesn't see on the big tours. He returns in February to play in the major Australian cities.

Reyes says laser surgery on his eyes means his sight is sharp enough, but admits, "The bigger problem is the muscle memory". His superstitious nature is as strong as ever, though.

He shuns the shower and keeps wearing the same clothes to encourage a continuation of good form in a tournament. When things are not going so well, he goes the opposite way, washing vigorously, changing his clothes and even getting a haircut.

Age may have blunted pool's sharpest cue, but he is still very competitive. Profiles state that when the big money is on offer, Reyes is at his most dangerous.

"I started so young and I really needed it because of my poor background," he says. "I needed it more than the players now - they start playing more as a recreation."

Efren Reyes plays at the YMCA in central Auckland tonight and tomorrow, starting at 7pm. There is an undercard and doors open at 2pm.